2023-09-01 08:00:55
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, community pharmacists have seen their skills expand in terms of vaccination. For the past few months, they have been able to administer vaccines, and now, since a ministerial decree and an order of August 8, 2023, they can prescribe and then administer vaccines from the vaccination schedule. An advance that simplifies the vaccination course of the French.
Get vaccinated at the pharmacy in a single appointment
A few years ago, to be vaccinated, the French had to successively consult their doctor to prescribe the vaccine, go to the pharmacy for the pharmacist to deliver the vaccine, then consult the doctor or go to the nurse to injection of the vaccine. Three stages which complicated the vaccination course and became more and more an obstacle in a major context of medical desertification.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the pharmacist’s role as a first-line healthcare professional. Asked to perform screening tests, to supervise self-tests, then to vaccinate once morest SARS-CoV2, the pharmacist saw his vaccination skills expand in just a few months. Since 2022, he can administer 15 vaccines according to the recommendations of the vaccination schedule, if these vaccines have been prescribed by a doctor. Since the ministerial decree and the decree of August 8, 2023, it can directly prescribe the vaccine, then administer it. Of the three previous vaccination stages, only one remains, thus simplifying the patient’s vaccination course.
Vaccination at the pharmacy from 11 years old
The pharmacist can prescribe all the mandatory and recommended vaccines in the vaccination schedule – updated annually – for adults and children over 11 years old. For younger children, consultation with a doctor or pediatrician is still necessary. At the same time, the pharmacist can prescribe and administer the seasonal flu vaccine to people over 11, whether or not they are targeted by the vaccination recommendations. On the other hand, the pharmacist cannot prescribe and administer live attenuated vaccines, such as the vaccine once morest measles, ears and rubella (MMR), in immunocompromised subjects.
For the patient, this simplification of the process will have no financial impact. It will be reimbursed according to the same terms as being vaccinated at the doctor’s office. With a reduced number of steps, it saves time.
Ask for advice and make an appointment with your pharmacist
Of course, to fulfill this new mission, pharmacists must be trained beforehand in the prescription and administration of vaccines, the training methods being specified in the texts published in the Official Journal on August 9, 2023. In terms of public health, Such an evolution meets several objectives:
- Make it easier for French people to get vaccinatedin particular the many French people who do not have a doctor in a context of medical desert or who are struggling to get an appointment;
- Strengthen vaccination coverage once morest several diseases with sometimes serious consequences;
- Strengthening the pharmacist’s role in prevention and health education.
Getting vaccinated has now been easier since August 10, 2023. Ask your pharmacist for advice, who can give you an appointment to be vaccinated in one step directly at the pharmacy!
Estelle B., Doctor of Pharmacy
Sources
– Order of 8 August 2023 setting the list and conditions of vaccinations giving rise to the pricing of vaccination fees due to the community pharmacist pursuant to 14° of Article L. 162-16-1 of the Safety Code social. www.legifrance.gouv.fr. Accessed August 9, 2023
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